


Right on Track

by grosta



Category: Snowpiercer (TV 2020)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Dystopia, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29113953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grosta/pseuds/grosta
Summary: Set post-1.09.Andre takes over as Chancellor of Snowpiercer, and Melanie volunteers to help. The pair takes on challenges together, while trying to work out things between themselves. Who knows, this may be just what they'd needed.
Relationships: Melanie Cavill & Andre Layton, Melanie Cavill/Andre Layton
Comments: 12
Kudos: 26





	1. Change of Command

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! This is literally my first ever fanfic ever, anywhere. Soooo yeah, I hope it won't suck! I'll work on the next part soon.  
> Hope you enjoy! I'd appreciate feedback :)

The J-linked carriages affix together right as the clock ticks down to zero. Trembling hands and wobbly legs, Andre drops to the deck, curling up against the wall below the switch he just pulled to turn a car of his friends into icicles. Those were his allies, some from the tail he got to know so intimately they were essentially family, others from Third that bravely put their confidence and loyalty into the revolutionary Layton. He's done it, but at too heavy a cost for him to remain strong at this time.

Andre's dejected figure is snapped back to reality by the sharp hiss of opening carriage doors. Looking up, he's greeted by a familiar pair of cold green eyes, in an almost condescending stare. Andre's eyes dance around the room, landing on anywhere but hers. He hasn't a clue how to act right now — the revolution is a success, he's been promised authority over the train, and he can finally right all the wrongs that the First did to the rest, that this woman in front of him did to everyone — yet after his narrow encounter with death and the end of humanity as he knows it, the anger and bitterness are secondary to the relief and gratitude in him that the Engine Eternal shall live to run another day.

"I guess the train is really yours now," Melanie interrupts the eerie silence between them, gesturing to the spot on the deck next to Andre. "May I sit?"

"Didn't I make it clear enough that we're anything but friends after the war is over?" Andre murmurs in a low but menacing tone. A pause later, he sighs and scoots over anyway, giving Melanie some room. She takes a seat beside him, thinking about what to say that wouldn't provoke him.

"I know how you must feel right now, having to sacrifice so much to do what's right. That's what it takes to be a leader. I doubt you'll believe anything I say, but I've made impossibly difficult choices for the train... no matter how much I'd have to give up in return."

"Was killing Josie for the train, too?" Andre snaps as he feels his anger awakening again at the thought of Josie, the soul too good for the world killed by this merciless woman. "Locking me in a drawer, was that for the train? Or was it just to shut me up for the sake of your little Mr Wilford masquerade?"

Melanie looks down to the floor, making a face as if to say 'I knew this was coming'. "I thought after this encounter you'd be more empathetic toward my actions. You see, locking you up was to keep a dangerous secret at bay, the one that led to so much bloodshed and violence when you spread it anyway. I hope you realise how much I hated that decision to throw you in there, but it had to be made. So yes, it was for the train." She pauses to think before continuing in a softer voice, "I want you to know I'm truly sorry it turned out that way with Josie, I really am. But it did because there was nothing else I could do."

She shifts her gaze back up to Andre, who seems confused and a little taken aback. He still isn't sure what the hell happened that led to Josie's untimely death, but the more he talks to Melanie about it, the less he believes Melanie could've set out to kill her the way he used to believe.

Andre decides to change topics.

"So how do you do it?"

Melanie furrows her brows, confused.

"How do you keep your head on straight amongst all the shit you live through?"

"I don't. I mean... I pretend to, but deep down I'm just... traumatised and exhausted. Sometimes it helps to remind myself that if Snowpiercer doesn't live on, the cruel decisions I've made would've all been in vain, and I think that might be the worst outcome ever. So I keep grinding, and grinding, but now I guess that's your concern and your stress, being the new chancellor of the train and all," she ends her reply in a lighthearted tone, earning a slight chuckle from Andre. She doesn't doubt Andre's capability one bit — he's among the most righteous and intelligent people she's ever met, so she knows the future of the train, and probably humanity, is in great hands. What she worries about, however, is his sanity, his mental health, because his kind soul doesn't deserve to be put through the unkind hell she's experienced.

"I just... I just hope I'm up for the task. I mean if it took some engineering genius to barely keep the train going, what is a police detective to do when the biggest problem on the train is anything other than a homicide mystery?"

"You know just because I'm no longer the leader, doesn't mean I'm dead, right? Leave the engineering to the 'genius' and her team, and her little apprentice Miles and Miles," she notices the features relax on Andre's face at the mention of the kid's name. "You just do what you're so annoyingly good at, dealing with the people."

Before she could stop herself, she blurts out, "Hey, if the whole thing ever gets too much for you, I'll always be here if you need my help."

Andre glances over at Melanie and offers her a nod and a barely noticeable smile. He has to admit, everything's totally down in Shitsville right now but somehow Melanie being here for him just made it all a little bit less shitty. It doesn't mean he forgives her for all she's done to him, but for the first time, he thinks he's willing to try.


	2. They Want Me Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melanie and Andre discuss the train, when Melanie is still very much wanted dead.

Melanie and Andre pace through cars of agriculture and futuristic farms of pigs, chickens, and what's left of the cows. It's only been half an hour since they diverted seven cars onto the wrong rails, but they're slowly deriving comfort and feeling much more at ease. Andre's questions about the train have been non-stop: how the whole system runs, how jobs are assigned, how people are fed and kept happy. And, surprisingly to him, Melanie has been genuinely cooperative with the barrage of questions he's firing at her, as if she's relieved that he's taking the train off her hands. Not because of how draining it's been on her, but for the sake of the people and their future — she believes he might actually be the right person for this.

As they approach Car 81, Melanie decides it's an appropriate time to start teaching Andre about the train's meticulously engineered water system.

"What do you mean our waste doesn't really go to waste? Where else can it go to then?" a spooked Andre asks, unsure if he really wants the answer to that.

"Cars 81 to 96 are water-"

"Yeah I know that by now-" Andre interrupts, to Melanie's annoyance. "...Okay, alright I'll let you finish."

"What you didn't know is, only four of those cars are for storage. The others are filtration — all your waste is purified with advanced membrane and ultraviolet technologies, so they're safe to be consumed again." Melanie explains, satisfied with the horrified look she just induced on Andre's face. "Well what else did you expect? You think we can get fresh water in here?"

"I don't know, I just thought being Engine Eternal and all that you'd find a magical way," Andre rebuts, realising how stupid he probably sounds to Melanie right now.

"We did find it, this _is_ the magical way," Melanie beams at the noisy filtration plant at work in front of her, for a moment forgetting the worries she's hiding from and procrastinating addressing. Just a few moments later, they all flood right back into her head again.

"So... what about air? How do you guys keep the air crisp and breathable?" Andre continues feeding his curiosity, oblivious.

Melanie can't delay this any longer. She suddenly stops their casual strolling, and turns to look at Andre.

"Um... are we gonna talk about what's gonna happen to me? I did just escape from an execution." Melanie asks, fearing the worst. "The next cars are going to be populated with people that want my head."

Andre would be lying if he said this predicament hasn't been on his mind, bugging him endlessly too. He hasn’t yet figured out what exactly he’ll do about her, so the next best thing he can offer is solace. "Look, I know you're worried, but the people aren't cruel, or hateful, they're just afraid. And disappointed. They spent seven years worshipping something that doesn't exist so they're taking out that disappointment on you. Not everyone wants you dead, Melanie. I for one wouldn't know how this train could function without you."

Melanie seems deep in thought, puzzled.

"Why?"

"You mean why I'm no longer on Team Screw Melanie?" Andre pauses. "I don't know. But I know you're a good person, with good intentions, Melanie. That doesn't excuse all that you've done, but you have to face this, go out there and explain yourself to everyone, tell them everything, and ask for forgiveness. Then you can finally have peace."

As the words poured out of his mouth, Andre realises what he must do.

Melanie returns Andre's piercing stare, trying her best to believe what she just heard. With a gentle nod, she motions for him to resume their walking, straight into the First Class dining car.

The dining hall is occupied by a few First Class families, the staff of Hospitality, some of the brakemen and what's left of the Jackboot army. In the middle of them all, in all her grand glory, is Ruth, donning her quintessential Hospitality teal, arms folded like a kindergarten teacher. The entire room drops silent upon Melanie's entrance, not believing their eyes. Then, as if on cue, it's roaring with shouts and shrieks of anger and confusion, everyone unable to fathom how in the world Melanie could possibly be out and alive. A few plates and bottles are thrown that could've hurt Melanie if they weren't so intoxicated celebrating her death.

"I don't know how you got out, but how dare you walk into this room like this, after everything you've done, and everything the tailies just did?" a wide-eyed Ruth finally exclaims to Melanie, on behalf of everybody.

"It's over, Ruth," Andre declares, moving in front of Melanie. "We instigated a necessary conflict, but the war's over, we won, and you're looking at your new Chancellor. Not Mr Wilford, not Melanie Cavill, me, Andre Layton. Unlike those two I just named however, I respect and listen to the voices of the people."

His announcement is met by muffled gasps and whispers, while Melanie wonders where he's going with this, sensing something of unpleasant familiarity.

If Andre doesn't offer power to the people, what did he and all his allies fight and die for? And what better opportunity than now? He has to do this.

"I understand you're upset. But as long as I'm in charge, Ruth, you won't go around executing people as you please. In the spirit of democracy, we'll be holding an official trial, where we'll fairly and legally decide the fate of Melanie Cavill. Thirty people will be picked at random to form a panel, representing 1% of the population. You can say your piece and voice your grievances, and Melanie can explain herself for every time she did you wrong. Until then, she is under the protection of the brakemen, and whoever intervenes shall be severely dealt with."

In disbelief, Melanie snaps her head to glare at Andre, whose eyes remain firmly forward, not daring to meet hers for a second. She's angry, afraid, but more than anything disappointed that he went ahead with this without even warning her, especially just after reassuring her that everything will turn out fine. Protection under the brakemen's doesn't mean she's out of harm's way, either — there are too many bitter people who hold unwavering grudges against Melanie and her questionable past actions, brakemen and others that know a thousand different ways to get past the brakemen. It's unclear how long she'll stay in a small, cold cell that's far from safe before her trial, after which, she could be free, dead, or return to that cell for the rest of her life. Melanie's thoughts run riot in her mind as she grows more and more anxious, vision blurring and head spinning. The last thing she hears before being savagely handcuffed and taken away by brawny brakemen is Andre's trembling whisper.

"You know I had to do it, Melanie."


	3. What Really Happened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Melanie suffers in her cell; Andre learns something big.

"And do we tolerate such deliberate and malicious treason on board the great Mr Wilford's Snowpiercer?" Andre stands a distance from Melanie, megaphone in hand, fueling the audience.

"NO!" The jam-packed crowd of several hundreds echoes back from what she makes out to be the setting for her trial, one of the many First-Class lounges, except it's looking a little different in ways she cannot explain in words, like it's from a separate time, space and dimension altogether. Blended into the sea of passengers she encounters daily are half-familiar faces she's almost forgotten, faces that somehow still hold the power to evoke poignant emotions and overwhelming feelings of guilt and remorse. She remembers the despair on their features and the desperation in their begging cries for her mercy, and then she vividly remembers her own hand pressing the button, or flicking the switch, or pushing the lever anyway. Perhaps more deplorable is the fact that most of these faces she's forced out of her head, never permanently but enough to stop herself from recalling their expressions, their names, their entire existences.

Shaken and vulnerable, Melanie shifts her clouded gaze back to the man with the megaphone, their revered Chancellor, whom she now realises has had his steely glare fixated on her all along, awaiting her attention. He lowers his megaphone such that his next words reach only her ears.

"You deserve this, Melanie."

Melanie opens her mouth to defend herself, but nothing comes out of it. No string of words can be formed, in part due to her completely parched throat, but more because she hasn't anything to say to these people. What could she possibly tell them to change anything? Her noble motives? No one wants to hear that. No one would believe that, anyway.

She eyes the crowd once again, surveying the people in there. This time she sees fewer of the living, and more and more of the forgotten, the ones left behind. Among them she sees a disapproving Mr Wilford, that iconic conceited smirk plastered on his face. And beside him, her beautiful 10-year-old daughter, unchanged from when she last saw her, left hand in Mr Wilford's firm grip. Her eyes, unlike the other passengers', convey more disappointment than vengeance, more sadness than anger. Melanie tries to call out to her, and to scream, but still nothing comes out. Finally, a familiar voice fills the room again.

"Melanie. Melanie!"

"Hey, Melanie, hey hey hey..."

\----- -----

Andre sits on his new bed, pondering.

It's his second day in his new cabin, one that used to be Second-Class, not that the classes matter anymore. It's cozy and comfortable, yet not overly extravagant. Just decent, he finds, and to him that's perfection. The queen-sized bed smack center of the room is, however, one substantial upgrade from the planks and mattresses in the tail that acted more as a ceiling for the rats than a platform to rest on.

And he sits on that bed, just pondering and pondering.

He's done the right thing, the  _ only  _ right thing he could've done, that much he thinks he's certain of. But his entire body and soul feels just awful. He's getting in his gut that same energy he used to feel whenever police inspectors prematurely closed intricate cases based on surface-level evidence that seemed to loosely fit the story, overlooking his advice to wait and let him probe deeper and figure out more clues. It wasn't wrong, but he always knew it wasn't right, either. He would always feel a strange sense of guilt, the same guilt slowly creeping into his mind right now, over her trial.

It's going to be Melanie versus the world. A brave and pragmatic leader fending off thousands of accusers viewing her actions from a miniscule keyhole, never close to seeing the full picture, her underlying intentions, her true vision for humanity's future. It won't end well for her, and that is anything but right.

He places the bowl of fruit from the table onto his lap and pops a grape into his mouth. He reaches for another when he hears a faint knock on the door, then some more, increasingly impatient.

Andre opens the door just wide enough to see his favorite brakeman.

“Till?”

“Hey Layton, I wanna talk to you about something…important,” Till hurriedly responds, still peeking in from the doorway.

“It’s late, Till-”

“It’s about Melanie. And Josie,” Till ignores Andre’s objections and pushes past him into the room. “Josie said to keep it between her and me, but I think you need to hear it.”

\----- -----

“Melanie, wake up…”

“Shh, quiet, hey, you’re okay…”

Melanie’s eyes flutter open to see a large figure squatting next to her, gently shaking her awake. Her face flashes a cocktail of guilt, confusion and relief at the sight of Andre Layton.

“I’m gonna get you out of here, come on,” Andre whispers, glancing over his shoulder to check for brakemen. He then helps her up, drapes his oversized coat over her figure, and motions for her to get moving.

“What are you… um… what?” Melanie asks, still in her sleepy daze.

“Talk later. Come on,” Andre grabs her hand and leads the way.

“Where are we going, at least?”

“Somewhere we can talk,” Andre remains vague in his answers.

The more discreet route back to Andre’s cabin is also significantly longer, but they reach it eventually. He opens the door for Melanie, earning a weird look from her but she enters anyway. Andre fetches some water from the pantry, and they settle down across from each other at the dining table, neither really knowing where to start.

“Okay, um, so what is going on?” Melanie prompts.

“I talked to Brakeman Roche, he agreed to keep the duty personnel on your cell rotated between himself and Till so no one notices you’re out,” Andre explains, watching Melanie’s expression briefly darken upon hearing Till’s name.

“...And why did you do that?”

Andre clears his throat. He’s rehearsed this in his head a couple of times on his way to the holding cell, but when it’s time for the real thing his mind suddenly functions differently. He’s going to have to go off-script and just tell her everything straight from the heart.

“I was just sitting there thinking about how… how you don’t deserve the treatment you’re getting from everyone,” Andre starts, Melanie staring at him wide-eyed, neither of them knowing where he’s going with this. “I did what I did because I wanted to offer the people a chance to have a say in major decisions, but I realised that’s gonna be unfair to you. And it pains me to imagine you being helpless as you’re ruthlessly vilified and skewered up there.”

Melanie’s dream flashes back into her head. And she realises the Andre in that dream wasn’t real — the real Andre just broke her out of her cell and is trying to help her, despite all the reasons he has for him to hate her.

“And then Till showed up. She told me what happened in that interrogation, that... Josie asked her to freeze her hand off so she could… kill you,” Andre manages to force those words out, still partially unwilling to believe this is true. “And you had no choice because it was her or you.”

His gaze grows more intense. “Why didn’t you tell me anything?”

“I knew how important she was to you… I didn’t want you to see her differently because of what she did,” Melanie tries to explain, looking anywhere but at him.

“But I don’t,” Andre cuts in, “because I always knew she was a fighter, and I’m so proud she went out fighting for what she believed to be right. The one I see differently now is you, Melanie.”

Melanie stops fiddling with her fingers and finally returns Andre’s penetrating stare.

“I always wanted to believe you were a good soul that stumbled across an impossible job. But now I know that to be true. You never wished to hurt anyone, you never wanted to kill, or leave people behind. You’re dedicating your life to stewarding humanity and people give you shit for it… I just…”

A single teardrop threatens to slip out of Melanie’s eye. He’s understanding her intentions, her commitment, and the burden of her role. He’s seeing her for who she is. 

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Melanie, and I promise I’ll do everything I can to fix this mess,” Andre assured, “starting with this stupid trial. I don’t know what yet, but there has to be a better way. We'll find it.”

“Thank you, Layton,” Melanie says, trying not to sound as emotional as she is.

“Layton? Really?” she receives a cheeky response instead, and rolls her eyes.

“Thanks Andre. I mean it.” Melanie says again, and Andre smiles back at her.

“You’re welcome, and thank  _ you _ .”

Andre pauses to contemplate how to talk about this next bit. “So... um, I was thinking you could stay here for the time being-”

“Okay,” Melanie responds, immediately realising it was probably a little too eager.

“...Alright, good, it’s settled then. Go get some rest, it’s like three in the morning right now.”

“It’s five.”

“Five??”

“Yep.”

“Shit, okay, I gotta settle some petty squabble between Pike and Terence. I won’t be long,” Andre says as he digs through the wardrobe for another coat. “ _ Rest _ .” He repeats in a playfully stern tone. Melanie complies, trying to hide her amusement. She heads to the bed, collapsing into it and drifting into slumber almost instantaneously.

Andre turns back around to see Melanie curled up on his bed, wrapped in his coat that’s way too big on her. He stares for a little too long, then leaves the cabin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, pretty long chapter lol. Hope yall like where I'm going with this hehe


End file.
